The Last Words
by Duck Life
Summary: Bella told Edward that she wanted to be alone for a day to think about what had happened in Italy. But then, tragedy strikes. Please R&R!
1. Chapter 1

I opened my eyes, slowly, carefully. He was there. His eyes were black, flat, but hopeful. I frowned to myself and moved my hand to his face. It was icy and hard, as it always had been. I almost felt as if our separation had never happened. _No_, I told myself. I couldn't let myself pretend that I had Edward back. He seemed to recognize the cause of my hesitation.

"Bella, I'm not leaving." He watched me, looking for some sign of distraught. I stared up at him, worrying that maybe I _didn't _want him back. Had I changed? I opened my mouth, and the words that poured out were more unexpected than if a stranger had spoken them.

"I…don't want you…to stay. For now." It was too hard to tell him to leave me forever, though I knew that, somehow, that was what I wanted. He tried unsuccessfully to hide his pained expression before jumping out of the window. I eyed the wooden pane long after he was gone. Finally, I collapsed against my bed and put my hands over my face. What had I done? Had I moved on? That was impossible! I _loved _Edward…But a small voice inside of me reminded me that I could have chosen him because there were no other options. Now that I had Jacob, though, it was harder to be with Edward. I wondered vaguely if, if I had liked Mike, or Eric, or both, I would have still chosen Edward. _Of course I would_, I told myself stubbornly. Why was it so hard to just accept Edward back into my life? I groaned and got out of bed, resolving to try and not think about it until tomorrow. Tomorrow, I would hunt down Edward and tell him…well, I hadn't yet decided what I would tell him.

The day was a blur. I was sitting down to breakfast with Charlie, who ignored me, and then, suddenly, I was brushing my teeth, getting ready to go to sleep. I slid under the covers and closed my eyes, trying to sleep without dreaming. I was unsuccessful. I dreamt about Edward, wandering around, as lonely and empty as I had been, while I stood there, laughing viciously. My eyes suddenly snapped open, and it was morning. I looked to see what had waked me up. The phone was ringing loudly. I deduced that Charlie had already left for work. I stood up, rubbed my eyes, and answered the phone.

"Bella?" came Jacob's husky voice. There was an undercurrent of unexplainable tension that I didn't understand.

"Hey, Jake," I said, my voice layered with sleep. Jacob was silent for a moment. Then:

"Victoria got past us. She…had an _army_." He sounded angry. I froze in horror.

"What-who?" I gasped, clutching my desk for support.

"She thought you would be at the Cullens'," Jacob spit. I dropped the phone, but not fast enough for me to hear Jacob say, "None of them made it."


	2. Chapter 2

**ONE WEEK LATER**

**JACOB'S POV**

I entered Bella's house warily. I knew how awful it was for her to hear that those people (I had forgiven them nearly everything in light of the incident) she loved so dearly were gone forever. What saddened me more was her reaction, though I was glad she hadn't inflicted any pain on herself. Even so, I feared that Bella was gone forever.

"Any change?" I asked Charlie when I saw him in the living room. He shook his head sadly. Charlie looked paler, and his frown seemed permanent. His eyes were empty, and he seemed to have aged a million years. I noticed him holding an empty whiskey bottle.

"She's upstairs," he croaked, and his voice betrayed his distraught. I tiredly made my way up the tiny staircase to Bella's room. The door swung open with the slightest push. She was lounging on her bed, staring at the ceiling and nodding in tune to the music emanating from her CD player. She noticed me after I shut the door.

"Hello, Jacob," she said quietly, looking up at me. Her face was expressionless. Nodding toward her player, she asked, "Don't you like Clair de Lune?" she asked, smiling blandly. Her eyes were even emptier than Charlie's. I knew that it wasn't Clair de Lune, though. It was the CD of songs that Edward had given her. I nodded.

"Yeah, Bella. I like it." I could feel the hot tears begin to collect under my eyes. I wiped them away, but they were soon replaced.

"Where's Edward?" she asked suddenly. She looked innocently curious, but there was pain behind her eyes.

"He's…he's gone, Bella. Edward's gone," I blubbered. She appeared to be unaware that some of the tears in my eyes were escaping.

"He said he didn't love me," she said gravely, staring at me. "That's why he went away." She was quiet for a moment. "Will you go away, Jacob?" she asked solemnly. I looked at her, and she seemed so innocent that it felt like I was being punched in the stomach. She was like a baby.

"No," I answered, tears streaming down my cheeks. "No, Bella, I'll never leave you."


	3. Chapter 3

**BELLA'S POV**

I was sprawled on the ground outside of Charlie's house. The heavy rain flooded my pot of red paint, turning it into a pale pink color and making it overflow. I grasped the handful of carnations that I had been dipping into the paint. They were all dark red, and they grew limp in the downpour. I counted them, glad that I had gotten the right number again: seventeen. I performed this ritual every day. Sometimes I pretended that the dye was blood. Sometimes I wondered if it was. Every day, Charlie came home to find me lying in the driveway, sodden and clutching the morbid bouquet. I added my tears to the rain briefly, and then stood up to go inside before Charlie got home.

When I got in the house, I quickly stuffed the flowers in a small glass jar and added the arrangement to the long row of nearly identical bunches of flowers on the counter. It didn't seem like Charlie was able to take them away.

I jumped when the phone rang, and hurried to pick it up. This was strange behavior- I normally just let it ring. There was nobody I wanted to talk to. Pushing aside this thought, I answered the phone. The voice on the other line made me freeze, and it made me return to sanity after months of lunacy. However, the change did not relieve me. Rather, it brought the urgency and fear of the moment to light. I wasn't sure whether I was grateful or not.

"Hello, Bella," sneered Victoria on the other line.


	4. Chapter 4

It is an odd, shocking, and disturbing sensation to realize that you are speaking over the phone to your eternal nemesis, the one who destroyed what happiness you had in life. Odd, because it was disconcerting to have subconsciously planned a confrontation, expecting to die shortly after it, and then encounter that confrontation over the phone. Shocking, because I was frozen with the blunt truth that it was _her_, the monster who had killed _Edward_, there on the other end of the line. Disturbing, because she was worse than a murderer, she was a demon in every definition of the word, and yet we were conversing (Well, exchanging silences) quite calmly over the phone, despite the hate factor.

But I didn't have time to truly reflect on these conflicting emotions. Because Victoria _had _killed Edward, and Alice, and Carlisle, and all the rest of them- the people that I had cared so much for. She'd taken them forever from my life just when I thought I might get them back. Then, the hate kicked in and overrode any fear I might have had- which was, in fact, hardly worrisome enough o count as fear. When you had nothing to live for, death isn't terribly frightening. If your existence is gone, then you do not exist. The difference between existing and surviving is very great, and that between surviving and death extremely insignificant.

"I've got your little werewolf friend here," she scoffed acidly. I froze, my finger curled around the phone cord. There was my something to live for. It was true- Jacob still cared about me. He visited almost every day. Even if his appearances gave me no hope for any return to normal life, or even tolerable life, it was unfair to him if I let anything happen to me. He loved me, and I knew that. I had to stay alive for him. "I'm going to break him so he can't fix himself unless you tell them to cut the security," she continued. I gasped.

"No! Don't hurt him! I don't want protection; I have nothing to live for." It felt bizarre for me to spill my true feelings to this worse-than criminal. She snickered quietly.

"I think Alice Cullen would disagree with that." I could not help it- I gasped. _Stupid_, I chastised myself, feeling a wave of fresh pain hit me already. She was toying with me. The Cullens were gone. I had killed them just as surely as if I had strangled them with my own hands- if that were possible. I was a murderer, and I deserved every wound that Victoria inflicted upon me. So I played her game.

"What?" I choked.

"She's here, Bella. You're not living in the world you think you are." I never was, was I? The line disconnected.


	5. Chapter 5

_Alice, Alice, Alice._ The name played over and over in my head as I stared at the ceiling in my bedroom. I couldn't think straight with the repetition of her name streaming through my head. Victoria had been lying, and even though I _knew _that, I still believed her. It didn't really surprise me; of course I would believe any path in which any part of my true family was still alive.

I just had to find out. I was torturing myself. I pushed myself off the bed and dragged my lethargic body across the floor to the phone. I desperately needed some sleep, but I rebelled against my fatigue. Some things were more important than health. I picked up the phone and hit star-six-seven. The phone rang and rang, but there was no answer, and it didn't go to an answering machine. Shaking, I dialed a familiar number and held the phone to my ear. Same luck. It was horrible. If Billy was gone… well, he hardly ever left his home. And who had disconnected the answering machine? _Wrong, wrong, wrong_, I chanted to myself. Finally, I dialed the number that hurt the most, as if each button I pressed carried a high electric shock. I held the phone to my ear, but before I heard the first ring, a cold, stony arm wrapped around my waist and pulled my back.


	6. Chapter 6

I didn't fight- somewhere in the back of my mind I knew it would never work, and I'd only be hurt more. Also, something told me that, because I wasn't dead yet, this arm wrapped around my waist couldn't be Victoria. Shivering, I snapped my eyes shut. I didn't want to see death if it was coming.

Moments later- it felt like hours- I felt someone laying me on the ground. Terrified, I cracked my eyes open, and then in shock opened them wider. "We have to get out of here," she whispered, looking over her shoulder. "I only stopped so you c-"

"Alice!" I shrieked, sitting up too fast and wrapping my arms around her. She hugged me back, briefly. "Alice, Alice," I cried, tears streaming down my cheeks. "I thought you were dead, and then Victoria said you were alive and now you're here!" I blubbered. She nodded quietly.

"I'll explain later, but we-"

"Is he…?" I whispered, shaking. To have so much given back to me in such a short time, I had to ask for more. Her delicate expression crumpled, and I found myself crying real tears, sobbing out my heart in the middle of the forest.

"I'm so sorry, Bella. Oh, this is why I didn't want to come," she apologized, looking as though she wanted to cry, too. "Listen, Bella. I can tell you exactly what happened later, if you… if you want to know. But now we have to save Jacob." The flow of tears almost came to a stop when she mentioned his name. "I ran away from Victoria, but he wouldn't leave. He said he wanted to be able to stop her if she came after you."

"Jacob!" I yelped, trying to stand. She pulled me back down.

"Bella, Victoria has an army of newborns. One vampire isn't going to be able to get anyone out of there." I looked into her golden eyes, seeking a solution.

"But two can," I replied, my voice steady. Alice nodded solemnly.

"We can," she answered. I nodded, taking a deep breath to calm myself.

"Now."


End file.
